"Drawing on many years as a devout Christian and as a leading political activist, Huffington suggests that in addition to sex, power, and survival, there is a “fourth instinct,” which she calls “the desire for transcendence,” that has driven political and social change throughout history. Huffington calls for a new form of political leadership that doesn’t play on fear and greed but appeals to what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature."

No question that Arianna Huffington is driven, but by what: Power? Fame? Money? Ideas? Ideals? When a woman has married a gay multi-millionaire, run for California governor, and morphed from conservative Washington pundit to liberal L.A. activist, the answer isn't simple.by Suzanna Andrews December 2005

It is another busy day at the end of another busy week for Arianna Huffington. She has been up since five a.m. on this Friday in late August, returning phone calls to the East Coast, reading the papers, and knocking off the first of several columns she writes each day for her new online venture, the Huffington Post. At eight, a car from CNN arrived at her mansion, in Brentwood, as it does most Fridays, to shuttle Huffington to the taping of its weekly show Reliable Sources; after that, she was driven to Santa Monica for her weekly appearance on the public-radio political talk show Left, Right & Center. Back home shortly after noon, she has no time for lunch. There are calls to return, the phone rings nonstop, and her staff is lining up with questions. Settled on the couch in her book-lined study, Huffington calls out to her housekeeper in that soft, Zsa Zsa Gabor purr so well known to the millions who have seen her on TV over the years: "Daaahling, more tea!"